Many fluorine-containing surfactants are already known and, in particular, quaternary ammonium salts in which a perfluorinated radical is linked to the quaternary ammonium group (for example trialkylammonium or pyridinium) by a bridge whose nature has a great influence on the application properties. This bridge can be very simple, for example CH.sub.2 or C.sub.2 H.sub.4 (U.S. Pat. No. 2,727,923 and French patent No. 1,588,482) or complex, for example --C.sub.2 H.sub.4 SO.sub.2 NH(CH.sub.2).sub.3 -- (French patent No. 2,084,888), --C.sub.2 H.sub.4 S(CH.sub.2).sub.3 --OCH.sub.2 CH(OH)CH.sub.2 -- (European patent No. 256,980), or the like.